This article might be interesting for the students of Japanese:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/world/asia/04language.html?ref=science

Quote:

Researchers studying the various dialects of Japanese have concluded that all are descended from a founding language taken to the Japanese islands about 2,200 years ago. The finding sheds new light on the origin of the Japanese people, suggesting that their language is descended from that of the rice-growing farmers who arrived in Japan from the Korean Peninsula, and not from the hunter-gatherers who first inhabited the islands some 30,000 years ago.

James

Actually I heard about this over a decade ago. However most Japanese have never been taught this or are in denial.

Sorry, maybe my quote implied that this article was saying it was a new theory. It's an old theory, but new evidence.

Here's another interesting language related story I read a while back. I hope it's OK to share here, even though it's not really related to just Chinese/Japanese.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110415165500.htm